Change of Plan

I was going to post the instructions for the eraser stamps. Life got in the way. My 16 year old son, Brandon called to ask me to bring a text book that he had forgotten this morning. I don't know what it is with my kids but they are so unorganized. I only take them their stuff half the time as I feel that they should learn to get it together. The other half I take pity on them and give in. Today was one of those days.
So today I will share some pictures of another of my passions. You already have seen the bead in my header, the toadstool. It is made from glass and I made it. I have a torch that gets very, very hot and I melt rods of glass in various colors to make beads (I am trying to break into marbles but so far they are not very round, which kind of defeats the purpose). I wrap the beads around a mandrel, a metal rod dipped in a release agent so the glass doesn't stick to the rod. Then they go into a kiln to be annealed. This makes the glass stronger as heating it disturbs the molecules. It is so much fun and I have a wonderful studio, a garden shed that has been finished with sheet rock and has a heater, air conditioner and exhaust fan. My private get away.
My torch uses oxygen and Propane, I use a tank of gas like the one on a grill and two former medical concentrators hooked up in tandem for the oxygen.
Well enough of that, here are some pictures.